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Favorite MP Friedrich Merz has been elected leader of the Christian Democratic Union in Germany, promising a “new beginning” for a party that is still at risk of losing last September’s Bundestag elections.
Merz was elected with 94.62 percent of the delegates’ votes at the CDU party meeting, promising to form a “strong opposition” to Social Democrat leader Olaf Scholz and his SPD-green-liberal alliance.
His success was evident, with two clear winners winning the title vote for CDU members in December. He has always been very popular among the CDU titles and files, though party officials have been skeptical of strong politics.
Merz’s election is the culmination of a long-standing dissenting party that is accustomed to sitting on opposing benches for the first time in 16 years and only for the third time in its history. It received only 24.1 percent in the September election, compared with 25.7 percent of the SPD.
Speaking to delegates before the election, Merz attacked Scholz, accusing him of lacking leadership. He said he had called for an official vaccine but had so far failed to issue a government verdict on the matter to the Bundestag: that it has remained silent on inflation, which is at its highest level in the 30’s; and that he did not go to Washington and Moscow, despite the Russia-Ukraine border.
“All your past. . . They would have shown leadership in situations like this, “he said.” They would have been in daily contact with their peers. “
Merz rose to prominence in the 1990’s, when his reputation as an independent reformer and outspoken recognition identified him as a rising star in the CDU. He became the leader of the Christian Democrats in 2000 but lost his job in a power struggle with Angela Merkel and in 2009 left the Bundestag to run a business. From 2016 to 2020 he was chairman of BlackRock Germany, a job that made him billions.
Saturday’s election was Merz’s third fortune. His last two CDU leadership applications ended in a narrow defeat – the first of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018 and then of Armin Laschet, the prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, last January. Both are considered to be loyal to Merkel’s centrist, a pragmatic course while Merz is a caregiver who often complains that the CDU went astray left under its former enemy.
In a statement on Saturday, Merz said he wanted to promote his party’s distorted culture, saying his defeat in the election had a “new beginning, a new opportunity”. He said his three roles as a leader were to form a strong opposition party, win the four most important elections to be held in Germany this year and formulate a new party program.
In his remarks Merz set out a policy, stating that the CDU “will protect the family” and “maintain the Bundeswehr and our European and international obligations”, and opposed the establishment of a “successful European federal government”.
He further added that the party’s mission was not to “follow the spirit of the times”, and recognized that one of the key issues in reforming Germany’s social security system was to work.
While acknowledging the need to combat climate change, he sought to emphasize the differences between Scholz’s “traffic light” agreement on the issue, particularly on the government’s role in reducing global warming.
Climate change “is not possible through state funding, higher taxes and levies,” he said. “It can work if we engage in business.”
“We know that wealth is nothing, but without a successful, competitive economy we would not be able to beautify our country or take care of our health over time,” he said.
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